This invention relates to a safety indicator for vehicle, and particularly to one which is capable of indicating the actual operating status of a vehicle for the drivers of other vehicles.
The density of vehicle is increasing continuously as a result of economic development and vehicle accidents are thus increased correspondingly. According to the statistical information, most of the accidents are due to that the drivers cannot respond rapidly when the road conditions are suddenly changed. Such accidents are especially easily caused by the vehicles running with high speed (as on the freeway) and always results in collision between vehicles.
Since the vehicle density is highly increased, a suitable distance can hardly be kept between travelling vehicles and thus the view of the driver may be obstructed by the vehicle in front. Therefore, under many circumstances, the driver of the following vehicle can has an understanding of the following vehicle and the action of the front vehicle only by means of the indicator lights provided on the tail of the front vehicle.
For example, the direction indicator lamps show that the vehicle is desired to have a turning or leaving the present lane and the stop lamp shows that the driver has actuated the brake pedal. Although this type of indicator system has been used for many years and a certain effect is obtained under somewhat lower speed, it is not well-satisfied and cannot provide a complete indication.
The traditional indicator system cannot clearly indicate, in addition to the turning and braking actions, whether or not the vehicle is accelerating, sliding and preparing to apply a brake or having a trouble. Therefore when the driver of the vehicle finds that the road conditions are inadequate, releases the accelerator pedal and prepares to actuate the brake pedal, the following vehicle will not recognize this condition and take any action until the brake pedal of the front vehicle is actuated and the stop lamps are lighted up. This always causes a chain collision.
When the vehicle stops for the reason of trouble or others, the vehicle itself has no means of indicating such a condition. Although the red lamps provided on the tail of the vehicle may be lit up at night, it cannot indicate whether or not the vehicle is moving. In addition, the manner of increasing the intensity of the red lamps when the brake pedal is actuated at night is also hard to be distinguished.
The headlight of a vehicle can be selected to use as a long-range light or short-range light. No matter whether the headlight is used as a long-range light or short-range light, when the vehicle is temporarily stopped (e.g., before a traffic light), the light thereof always dazzles other drivers, therefore the headlight has to be turned off and this causes certain inconvenience to the driver.
Moreover, in the traditional indicator system, the driver cannot determine whether or not the various indicator lamps work well without leaving the car. Especially in the case of the stop lamp, which will not be lit up until the brake pedal is actuated, a single person cannot simultaneously actuate the pedal and check the stop lamp provided at the tail of the vehicle. At least two persons are needed in such a checking procedure.
In view of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional systems, the object of the present invention is to provide a safety indicator which can clearly indicate the operating status of a vehicle.
The another object of the present invention is to provide a device for temporarily turning off the headlight when the vehicle is stopped and turning it on again when the vehicle moves.
The another object of this invention is to provide a device for determining whether or not the various indicating lamps are working properly without leaving the car.